WJPA Sports

The Pittsburgh Pirates aim to end a four-game skid with a win over the Cincinnati Reds after losing 8-7 Friday. Cincinnati is 52-57 overall and 25-30 in home games. The Reds have a 21-12 record in games when they did not allow a home run. Pittsburgh has gone 26-28 on the road and 55-56 overall. The Pirates are sixth in the NL with 139 total home runs, averaging 1.3 per game. Saturday’s game is the 12th time these teams match up this season. The Pirates are up 6-5 in the season series.

GENEVA (AP) — FIFA President Gianni Infantino is abandoning his divisive plan to sell World Cup profits to private equity after receiving pushback from all corners of the soccer world. Infantino’s decision came after his senior adviser who sat on a White House panel resigned and Asia’s soccer body joined Europe and North America in opposing it. Infantino had proposed creating a $20 billion company to run the World Cup with private investors including the Kushner family, but drew backlash that grew every day. UEFA’s 55-member nations agreed to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions over Infantino’s plan, followed by CONCACAF and the Asian Football Confederation.

PATERSON, NJ (July 31) – The Washington Wild Things took home an 8-5 win in the series opener against the Jackals Friday night at Hinchliffe Stadium by getting a combined eight hits from Cole Fowler and Andrew Czech, while Czech belted two homers and drove in six and seeing Kobe Foster twirl a quality start in his return from the injured list. New Jersey grabbed the game’s first run in the second off Foster on a pair of doubles to start the inning, the first two hits for the Jackals against Foster this season. Kobe threw his no-hitter in June at home against New Jersey. He’d not yield another tally as New Jersey went mostly silent until the eighth inning when they scored their other four runs, bringing the go-ahead run to the plate in the frame as well. An interference call on a runner headed to third ended the threat. Cole Fowler got Washington going in the fourth inning with a solo shot to even things up at 1-1 before Czech hit the first of two three-run homers on the night for the first baseman in the fifth to put the Wild Things in front. Fowler scored on a wild pitch in the sixth after collecting his third of four hits, making it 5-1. Czech added his second of the night and 20^th of the season in the eighth, a three-run shot that put Washington up 8-1. Foster earned the win to go to 7-2 on the year while Landon Ginn used five pitches to settle and finish things in the ninth, earning his 10^th save. The two teams will go at it again Saturday night at 6:35 with New Jersey native Jack Brodsky taking the mound for Washington opposed by Elio Serrano for the Jackals.